Woodstock Corp Buys 12,891 Shares of Hershey Company (The) $HSY

Woodstock Corp boosted its position in shares of Hershey Company (The) (NYSE:HSY) by 45.3% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 41,317 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 12,891 shares during the quarter. Woodstock Corp’s holdings in Hershey were worth $6,512,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the business. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new stake in Hershey during the 2nd quarter worth $2,303,889,000. GQG Partners LLC acquired a new position in shares of Hershey in the 2nd quarter valued at $485,436,000. Bank of America Corp DE bought a new position in shares of Hershey in the 2nd quarter worth $274,871,000. Legal & General Group Plc bought a new position in shares of Hershey in the 2nd quarter worth $183,623,000. Finally, First Trust Advisors LP boosted its position in shares of Hershey by 315.4% in the 1st quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 1,083,675 shares of the company’s stock worth $225,285,000 after purchasing an additional 822,772 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 57.96% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Hershey news, CFO Steven Voskuil sold 1,500 shares of Hershey stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $170.00, for a total value of $255,000.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 53,195 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,043,150. The trade was a 2.74% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Company insiders own 0.08% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms recently commented on HSY. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their price objective on Hershey from $215.00 to $180.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, July 22nd. Jefferies Financial Group set a $190.00 target price on Hershey in a report on Thursday, July 16th. Sanford C. Bernstein restated a “market perform” rating and set a $201.00 target price on shares of Hershey in a research report on Friday, July 31st. UBS Group upped their price target on Hershey from $190.00 to $198.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, July 31st. Finally, Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of Hershey from a “hold (c)” rating to a “hold (c-)” rating in a research report on Thursday. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and sixteen have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Hershey presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $203.67.

Hershey Stock Performance

HSY stock opened at $163.60 on Tuesday. Hershey Company has a 1-year low of $156.16 and a 1-year high of $239.48. The company has a current ratio of 1.18, a quick ratio of 0.66 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.03. The firm has a market cap of $32.87 billion, a PE ratio of 22.35, a P/E/G ratio of 1.29 and a beta of 0.10. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $174.06 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $182.29.

Hershey (NYSE:HSY) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 30th. The company reported $1.90 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.43 by $0.47. The company had revenue of $2.79 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.63 billion. Hershey had a return on equity of 31.92% and a net margin of 12.24%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $1.21 earnings per share. Hershey has set its FY 2026 guidance at 8.360-8.520 EPS. As a group, research analysts forecast that Hershey Company will post 8.49 earnings per share for the current year.

Hershey Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 15th. Investors of record on Friday, August 14th were paid a dividend of $1.4520 per share. This represents a $5.81 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.6%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 14th. Hershey’s dividend payout ratio is presently 79.23%.

Hershey Company Profile

The Hershey Company (NYSE: HSY) is a global confectionery and snack food company headquartered in Hershey, Pennsylvania. Founded by Milton S. Hershey in 1894, the company began as a chocolate manufacturer and has grown into one of the largest producers of confectionery products in North America.

Hershey’s portfolio includes chocolate, candy, gum, mints, protein bars and salty snacks. Its well-known brands include Hershey’s, Reese’s, Kisses, Kit Kat, Jolly Rancher, Twizzlers, Ice Breakers, SkinnyPop and Dot’s.